palmermd wrote:I just can't imagine why this keeps coming up. It is simply a non-issue. All modern cars are extremely quite at slow speeds. EV's are not any quieter than other cars except when you put the accelerator pedal to the floor.

Well, I'm not quite sure that it's completely a non-issue. I've been behind someone walking up the center of a parking lot a few times where it's taken a little blip of the throttle to let them know you're behind them. Of course you could "bip" your horn at them too, but that can give them a bit of a fright if they happen to be completely oblivious.

I agree that some sort of horn/annunciation would be nice. But as you pointed out, this is not an EV problem, but all cars. If they would just mandate that the horns in all cars be changed to make a quieter sound that would be OK. I hate when people pull up to the neighbors house and blast the horn instead of walking up to the door and knocking. I had a neighbor who was picked up at 5 am every day by one of these knuckleheads. There is no reason I can think of that we need loud horns on our cars.

It keeps coming up because EVs are often advertised as "silent" (which they are not), and the national association for the Blind (or some such organization) keeps getting legislation introduced that would require "noise-makers" of some sort to be operating on EVs.

In California, we have already had to defeat one such bill (that would create a commission to study and recommend which noise-maker to use).

No, all hot or sharp objects, or holes or trenches do not (yet) require noise-makers on them.

Do we need constantly-speaking signs for the illiterate?

It seems many in power or law enforcement do not really understand "disabled", "handicapped", "illegal alien", or even "stupid".

Mark Perry, a Nissan spokesman, said the company’s Leaf battery electric car, which is planned for release at the end of the year, will include a sound. Nissan will introduce the sound at a Japanese media event in two weeks. “It’s a little too early to disclose it, but when we do you’ll understand the work that went into it from our audio guys,” Mr. Perry said.

Mark Perry, a Nissan spokesman, said the company’s Leaf battery electric car, which is planned for release at the end of the year, will include a sound. Nissan will introduce the sound at a Japanese media event in two weeks. “It’s a little too early to disclose it, but when we do you’ll understand the work that went into it from our audio guys,” Mr. Perry said.

A more likely candidate would be the sound of an internal-combustion engine idling when the electric car is at a traffic light and a more aggressive note that would kick in when the car starts to move.

“Bruup, bruup” is an approximation of the sound that will be made by the Chevrolet Volt, according to Micky Bly, General Motors’ executive director for hybrid electric vehicles and batteries

SEATTLE (AP) - Some musicians spend 18 months working on a whole album. At
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), that's how long it took to perfect just four seconds
of sound.

Of course, this isn't just any four-second clip. It's the sound - a soft
da-dum, da-dumm, with a lush fade-out - that millions of computer users will
hear every day, and perhaps thousands of times in total, when they turn on
computers running Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.